ONE DAY the phone rang. A voice on the other end of the line said, “Your copper-patina-with-oil-painting art works are great. And I have a  question for you. Do you think you could do a similar painting on copper using… hot sauce?”

Well, hot sauce does have an acidic nature and can be an oxidizing agent on copper, sure. The first thing that ran through my mind was, “maybe after a couple of margaritas…”

But he was serious. And soon, so was I. Vin is a producer for Thrillist, a top New York City media agency.

The client? Not any hot sauce maker you would have heard of. “General Electric,” he said. “They’re producing the hot sauce, along with Thrillist…” The idea was to celebrate GE jet engines, which are designed to withstand enormously high temperatures. What better way to do it than through the release of a super, super hot hot sauce?

I loved the wild factor. As the weeks unfolded it was clear that Thrillist was really behind this. They brought in a very talented creative team and filmed me doing the painting, which you can see above. The film was used as part of the promotion for the launch of the General Electric hot sauce.

The General Electric Mandala painting which resulted is destined to hang in the GE offices in New York City.

Write me with your burning idea for a commissioned work of original art.

Yours in heat, light, the creative process,

— Richard